Q.Someone told me I could reduce my ink costs by using concentric screening. What is it and how does it work? Are there any other ways of achieving the same thing?

A.Concentric is a new screening technique that can be used in any offset litho print application. It uses the well-known ‘AM screening’ structure, with a regular pattern of round dots having a ruling and an angle. The difference is that thin concentric rings are inserted in the screen dots. Dividing up the dot surface on the plate reduces the ink film thickness, which allows you to reduce ink usage. It also makes it possible to print cleaner, more saturated colours.

The ink saving you can achieve will vary depending on the paper (or other substrate) and on the kind of work being printed. Some recent examples include: a heatset web magazine printer, which saved 22%; and a large folding carton converter producing food packaging, which saved about 15% on ink. As a rule of thumb, we believe that if the work contains a reasonable amount of process colour, a saving of 10% on your annual ink cost is a good target to aim for when implementing concentric screening.

Because concentric limits ink film thickness, it also improves print stability. Changing inking on press makes very little difference to TVI (dot gain) and so it is much easier to get consistent colour. Although introducing a new technology to the pressroom can be a challenge, press operators take well to concentric thanks to this stability, along with the fact that the technique has rosettes, just like conventional screening.

Another way to save ink is using the grey component replacement (GCR) technique, which can be done using a number of products on the market. GCR works by taking some or all of any neutral (grey) component of a colour that has been made from a mixture of three coloured inks (CMY) and replacing this with a single black ink (K).

GCR can be an effective way of saving ink but, of course, the potential saving depends on the content of the original separations you are given. If the job already has a long black separation, the GCR cannot add anything.

GCR can also only be effective in colours with a neutral component. In bright saturated colours, there is no neutral to replace. The concentric effect applies to both saturated and neutral colours. I know of at least one web offset printer that is using concentric and GCR together as they complement each other well.
Paul Bates

Q.One of our customers is months behind on payment. Would it be appropriate to initiate a Winding-up Petition? Can you give me some more information about this?

A.The first thing to consider is whether you envisage an ongoing relationship with this customer. If not, have you explored all other avenues? If owed at least £750, you can petition the court for a (corporate) customer to be wound up, but you will need to have a certain debt, evidenced by an unsatisfied judgment or statutory demand.

Winding-up should be a last resort. It has far reaching consequences for the customer, its business and employees. Once a petition is advertised, the customer’s bank account will be frozen, so this is not necessarily the best way of extracting money to satisfy your debt.

The procedure following petition is for the court to make a Winding-up Order, if it satisfied that the company is insolvent (ie, can’t pay its debts). That order starts a liquidation process, through which the company’s assets will be sold (often on a break-up basis) and the proceeds distributed to you and other creditors. The general principle is that all creditors are treated equally, so don’t expect to receive more than a few pence in the pound, and note that liquidation can take some time.

As a creditor, you can influence the liquidation process once the court order has been made. The Official Receiver (a civil servant) may hold a creditors’ meeting to appoint a liquidator if there are assets to be realised. The law allows creditors a say in the appointment in most cases. Voting is by reference to the value of your claim.

So who is the liquidator? Only licensed insolvency practitioners (IPs) can take on work as liquidators, administrators and the like. They are qualified, experienced and regulated individuals who specialise in this highly technical area of administration and law.
You may want to appoint one known to you locally, or someone linked to a national firm, and you may feel that appointing someone of your choice will give you an opportunity to ensure that matters of particular concern to you are looked into (for example, certain assets traced or claims pursued). To find an IP, you can use the Insolvency Practitioners Association’s search facility via www.ipa.uk.com
David Kerr

Q.We’re getting increasing demand for digitally printed t-shirts for trade customers. However, I’m worried about the manufacturing conditions of the t-shirts. How can I ensure materials have been produced in an ethical way?

A.Companies often ask us how they can ensure that the products they buy are produced ‘ethically’. OK, first some bad news. We don’t think it’s possible to provide any absolute guarantees about working conditions.

There are several reasons for this. The most obvious is that assessing whether suppliers are complying with labour standards is simply very hard. Many of the issues that workers face are difficult to detect. For example, bullying isn’t usually documented.

In some countries, births are not accurately registered, making it virtually impossible to verify the age of young workers. And many suppliers have become experts at pulling the wool over auditors’ eyes, fearful of losing business if they ‘fail’ an audit. 

Now for the good news. While audits are not foolproof, if done thoroughly they can provide useful baseline information to check progress against. And progress is possible.

The key is how you deal with your suppliers. You need to be robust and clear about what standards you expect, then help them understand how they can meet them. They should know that, while they don’t have to be perfect, they do have to be willing to listen and ready to try new things. They should not fear being ‘caught out’, but should be motivated to become
better managers.

Trading ethically is not easy. But Ethical Trading Initiative corporate, trade union and NGO members have worked for more than 10 years to find solutions to the many challenges involved. We now have a body of knowledge about how to get information on working conditions, how to get supplier buy-in, and to make sure that buying practices – for example, pricing and lead times – don’t constrain suppliers’ ability to provide decent conditions for their workers.

And our members are making a difference: last year, our corporate members reported more than 50,000 separate improvements to workers’ conditions in a supply base covering more than six million workers.
I encourage you to find out more about us at www.ethicaltrade.org
Dan Rees